•  Richard S. Stansbury, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, stansbur@erau.edu, PI

•  Nick Demidovich, FAA Commercial Space Transportation (AST), nickolas.Demidovich@faa.gov

•  Partner organizations: - ERAU - FAA - MITRE

•  The objective of the proposed

flight opportunity is to create a path through empirical analysis to mature the UBR-ERAU prototype toward a design that can be utilized by NASA, FAA, and commercial space transportation providers such as Virgin Galactic to support asset tracking and better airspace integration.

Initial Flight Testing of a UAT ADS-B Transmitter Prototype for Commercial Space Transportation Using a High Altitude Balloon

This effort addresses Technology Area 13-26: “Tracking, Surveillance, and Flight Safety Technologies”

Experiment Readiness: •  Initial balloon flight proposed •  Components utilized have existing flight history

•  UBR-TX: high altitude balloons and sounding rockets

•  Javad TR-G2 GPS: NASA KSC tested •  Key components replaced with mil-spec

equivalents.

Test Vehicles: •  This proposal requests operation on the Near

Space Corporation’s Nano Balloon System (NBS).

Test Environment: •  The UBR-TX, the basis for this prototype, has

flown on a number of rocket flights. •  Proposal requests operation on NSC’s NBS

•  Altitude > 105,000 ft. •  Duration up to four hours •  Exposure to near-space environment

Problem Statement

Technology Development Team Objective of Proposed

Experiment

Technology Maturation

•  ADS-B technology such as the MITRE UBR-TX have great potential for tracking assets in commercial space transportation.

•  The UBR-ERAU is a prototype based upon the UBR-TX that utilizes an unrestricted GPS to support operations in excess of current ITAR/COCOM velocity and altitude limits.

•  This proposal seeks flight opportunities to test and refine this prototype.

•  Component technologies vary in maturity

•  UBR-TX, TRL 6 •  Javad TR-G2, TRL 6 •  Antennas, TRL 4+ •  Daughterboard, TRL 3 •  Firmware, TRL 3

•  Local dynamic tests shall validate integrated system to TRL 4.

•  NBS Flight will provide necessary validation to raise readiness from TRL 4 to TRL 5 or 6 (field demonstrated prototype)